560 A6M3 Model 22s were built between December 1942 and summer of 1943. The A6M3 was built after the Battle of Midway, with longer wings, folding wing-tips (for carrier use), a more powerful engine and the longest range of all the Zeros.

The first flight of the "Zero" fighter was April 1, 1939. Allied Intelligence applied the name "Zeke" to the A6M, but it was better known as the Zero, the name derived from its type designation after the year in which it was put into service - 1940. Mitsubishi and Nakajima built 10,449 "Zero" fighters (more than any other type of Japanese aircraft). The single-seat fighter has light-weight all-metal construction and fabric-covered control surfaces. As the fighting on Guadalcanal raged, the Zero 22s were rushed to Buna in New Guinea and Buka in the Solomon Islands to provide cover over the supply route to Guadalcanal.

Our Zero was delivered to the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Group #3. The aircraft was recovered from Babo in New Guinea in 1991, partially restored from several A6M3s in Russia, then brought to the United States for completion of restoral. In 1998 the aircraft was re-registered and displayed at the Santa Monica Museum of Flying. Currently, this aircraft has a Pratt & Whitney R1830 engine (compared to the original Sakai engine in the Planes of Fame Museum's flyable A6M5 Zero). There is, nevertheless, the fact that Japan had a contract with Pratt & Whitney before WWII in which P&W provided engines for fighter planes and other aircraft. It is, therefore, conceivable that some of the planes participating in the Pearl Harbor attack could have been powered by American engines.

This Zero is currently one of only three flyable Zeros in the world.

Crew Chief: Yoshi Abe.
Zero Crew: Ken Gottschall, Robert Blair.

Photo Gallery of the Zero Restoration while in Santa Monica, CA




A video of the trip home from Midland Airsho 2009 from the cockpit of the Zero




A GREAT video thanks to www.pozefilm.de of our Hellcat and Zero for the Midland CAF Airsho 2006





Feburary 15, 2009 - A few shots from a test flight over the California coastline.  Pilot - Ken Gottschall  Photos by Robert Blair

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

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